I love burpees

zumba, turbokick, zumba - got my 3 hours in

started the day teaching core fushion - didn't do most of it

Well today was great and not so great.  i wanted to run the course for the sand hollow marathon and get a feel for the hills.  i started at mile 5 where it turns off the main rd. 

So i started out and i was simply amazed how great my legs felt. i'm running the lake to lake relay this weekend and knew my miles weren't going to be more than 10 then.  so i wanted a semi long one.  Anyhow, i was easily running 7:30 -7:40 - which is always a shock the week after running a race.  The hill the leads to nemisis felt pretty long, and i'll have to be mindful that it's longer than it looks.  i charged down nemisis, and ran the rolling hills in sand hollow.  I love it!  my legs were flying.  i was just cruising up the hills at 7:10, and was hardlly breathing. 

At mile 8 i turned around and that's where things went not so great.  I started getting a pain in my side - it felt familiar cause that is what i had felt on sat during miles 9-13 of my race.  i thought it had been a side ache.  it was now apparent that i had done something to my ab muscles on my right side.  too much turbokick and zumba??? i don't know. 

anyways, so the pain increased as i ran, and at several points i had to stop and walk.  when i massaged it, i could get it to go away for a bit. when i ran uphill it went away.  it got worse on downhills (abs stretching out more).  By mile 14 i was pretty frustrated, but last 2 miles felt ok.  it was there but bearable.  I still managed to finish with a few 7:10s.  my miles 9-11 were 7:40s and then nemisis was 8:20ish.  13-16 were low 7s again.  So i was very happy about my fitness level today - especially post race and up hills!  I wasn't planning to push my pace today, but had just gone with what i felt.  I am very worried about the ab pain.  I can't tell if its the rectus abdominus, or obliques, but it'sjust on the right side in the middle.  it was bad enough to make me stop a few times.

7:30 average pace today

i trained big loser contestants, and then taught my class afterwards.  the pain seemed manageable and i didn't think to much of it.  hopefully it's not bad!  i plan on taking tomorrow off of running

iced and massaged the part that hurts on abs - brrr - seems to be 2 spots.

I woke up today and realized that i was supposed to sub a turbokick class - dang it.  so much for taking a rest day.

abs bugged me at times but not horribly.  They felt worse afterward than they did beforeand kind of ached all day.  after icing  several times and pounding the ibuprofen, they feel much better.  i'm worried about the relay this weekend - though i'll only run it if i'm feeling ok.  i've got to remember it's not as important as my marathon!

On a side note, i put a wrap around my belly - kind of corset - like - and tried running back and forth in the back yard.  it seemed fine, though i obviously couldn't breathe as well.  I'm going to get a sub for zumba, and then bike tomorrow.  i may try wrapping it to keep it warm and compressed and then running a few miles to see if it's ok.  I really don't think the ab tear is extremely serious because i'm still able to do so much with little pain.  hopefully good news tomorrow.

Yay!  i ran today!  it was on the treamill, and the first 2 miles were super slow, but i wrapped my abs and went for it.  I could feel them at times, but definitely not jarring like tuesday.  i sped the last few miles up (8 min, 7:30, 7:00, 6:30, 6:08) to see how they were doing at faster speed.  seems to be ok, so i'm staying on for the relay.

I decided that i was going to get it done today, even if i did have to wrap abs again - (ugh makes it hard to breathe).  Jim didn't have to be to work til 10, so i was in heaven being able to get my workout in without my kids.  I had 2.5 hrs before he'd drop isaac off, and i wanted to let my abs rest from running a little more. soooo i did a little triathlon.  i got .75 miles of swimming in, then jumped out to go to renee's spin class.  i was not positioned on the bike right, cause my knee and hip felt awful.  i kept having to stop and stretch it out.  soo, i don't feel like i pushed very hard, but did get an hour in.  i ran out of time at the end and only got 2 miles of running in around the track. abs were there, but not too bad.

met up with my ladies to decorate the van and discuss strategy for tomorrow's race.  i didn't think we'd have to try too hard to win tomorrow. little did i know......

Lake to Lake relay!!!!  I was looking forward to a stress free race day today, and hanging out with some fun girls:) 

I started my day today at 5 am with very little sleep (thank u evan and isaac for your middle of the night play session that kept me awake).  I dragged myself out of bed at 5 am to be at Ambers' by 6.  We wanted to run a little before, but it didn't happen. We were too busy striping our faces, using our hair dye, and just getting ready.  i loved how it looked at the end:)  we were the red sheebraz (zebras - get it), though we did have people ask us if we were cats????? we must have been really drunk drawing on those whiskers.

so my team did so great that day!  the start was fast, but kari kept up the ladies. brooke also ran a great split.  we got a couple warm up miles in which made me happy.  but  by leg 3, amber had some work to do. she really put us in a good position - it didn't look like any teams were going to be too competitive.  i just wanted to have fun, get some kills, and run some good tempo miles.  i wore my ab wrap for my leg cause it was so downhill and those seemed to hurt it the worst.  it did constrict breathing a little, but glad i wore it.  i ran these legs last year in the same race, but my computer crashed sometime last year and didn't have the times to compare it to:(  i do remember that on this particular leg i had averaged in the 6:20s, so i had a goal of beating that.  this leg was gradual downhill, so i pushed myself a little.  here r my splits

1 - 6:15 - a little uphill in there

2 - 6:07

3- 6:02

4 -6:09 - flattens out

5 -6:09

.19 - 5:37

6:08 average

I was pretty pleased with my splits cause it was pushing me, but i didn't get any leg tiredness.  this really tells me that i'm already in a much better position than i was last year;) 

michelle took it away and killed it of course. we were way ahead and everyone was looking good til leg 6.  poor kari took a wrong turn, and ended up adding almost 5 miles onto her 4 mile leg.  We knew after 40 min had gone by that something was wrong.  we just had to sit and wait til she figured it out cause it was all on trail - we wouldn't be able to find her anyways.  after 1 hr and 20 min, amber went looking.  thankfully she eventually came in, but we had given up on the idea of first place.  amazingly she had still kept her determination  The next team had came and gone at least 30 min before then. 

but there was always hope, so we started our second legs with new determination.  Brooke made up some good time, and then amber busted out another great leg as well.  we were gaining on people we thought had been long gone.  By the time amber finished leg 8, we were back in 2nd place!  The blue team had left right when we had gotten there, so they had a good 8-10 min on us still.  i had the "hardest" leg, though it really didn't feel too bad.  i drank a 5 hour energy right before and wonder if that helped???  not sure what the % grade on that was (at least 10% is my guess), but it was pretty steep - and bumpy!  i did have fun trying to avoid sprain an ankle from all the deep ruts in the dirt. at one point on the hill i looked down and i was in the 6:40s.  wow, wasn't expecting that.  i didn't really feel the uphill til the last part of my leg where it has a longer hill that seems to have stretched on. 

1 - 6:45 - up that hill - happy bout that;)

2 - 6:50

3 - 6:26 - rolling hills - still in the dirt

4 - 6:48

5 - 6:51

so average 6:43 - last year i know that was in the 7:20 range - though we did have wind then.

when i got in i found out that blue team was now only 3 min and 40 sec ahead of us.  really!  we were pretty sure michelle would catch her, but stacy (their runner) was holding her own and fighting for it.  they started going around the lake and then we couldn't watch any more.  in those last 2 miles, michelle beat her and victory was oh so sweet.  the day had been so much more challenging and so fun!  go team sheebraz!

i had some good talks with some great runners, and am inspired to do more and be even more committed. 

 first thing is, i need a training schedule.  i  don't know what to follow, or what to do this year.  right now i'm focused on a getting a good time (and place) at the sand hollow marathon.  yes it will be a pretty challenging course, but i think it's do-able. i don't know if a sub 3 hour will be possible on that course cause of the monstrous hill at mile 18, but i would love to get a 3:05 or better.  that would be fabulous.  3:10  would be great.  i am confident that i can beat my time at st. george marathon.    3 weeks baby!

secondly, after my chat with michelle and amber, i'm realizing i need to change my mental thinking about what's possible for me to acheive.  i know sometimes i stand in my own way.  i has some great splits today, and prob could have held that pace for a while.  i'm going to work on setting higher goals and working harder for them. 

soooo, im inspired and tired today - i need  a nap.  great day though